And here is the link to watch the video. Every sentence, or part of a sentence, is read twice: the first one at normal speed, and the second one world by world, so that you can identify every word with its corresponding pronunciation. Click here to watch the video.

Words in red are verbs in subjunctive. Why are we using subjunctive in these sentences? You’ll notice there are also some words in black (bold): “Quiero que…”, “Deseo que…”, “a no ser que…” and “Me gustaría que…”.

In general terms, the subjunctive mood is used in Spanish to express doubt, uncertainty or possibility in the future. It is used in conditional sentences, also with certain words (“quizás”, “a no ser que”, …) or when expressing personal feelings or opinions.

So, in this case, back to the sentences in our text, note all of them, except sentence number 5, use the subjunctive as they imply personal opinions or wish. More, whenever we use verbs like “I wish”, “I hope”, etc, subjunctive must be used.

Another important point to cover, apart from “when to use subjunctive”, is studying how verbs in subjunctive mood are conjugated. It is not as difficult as you may think. It is just a question of practice. Both, use and conjugation of the subjunctive will be covered in future articles.